Topic Review (Newest First)

As he splashes his champagne into his computer case and shorts everything out...

March 2nd, 2012, 01:18 PM

Eli

Oh definitely, it helps that at least someone is listening, feeling my pain... lol She's still running, hopefully she has plenty of time left.

I guess looking for a new motherboard was a little premature.

February 29th, 2012, 08:20 PM

stroyal

Hopefully, i at least provided moral support, as I learned more from you, than you learned from me.

Glad you fixed it.

February 29th, 2012, 08:06 PM

Eli

Success! The old girl booted! I had to re-enable my RAID array, no surprise there, and Windows detected some "new" audio hardware due to the updated BIOS, but she seems no worse for wear. Hopefully my endeavor will help someone else in the future. No one should have to go through that...

And for the love of god, if you burn your BIOS update to a CD-RW, ERASE IT WHEN YOU'RE DONE! lol

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few disks to erase. IT WORKED!

February 29th, 2012, 04:36 PM

Eli

Still at work, I'll take the plunge and reboot when I get home.

I just read online that at some point Acer/whoever changed the naming scheme for their BIOS versions, hence the ROM ID error. Seems like a silly, needless problem for someone to create, but I can also see it happening.

In a few hours I'll reboot and hope for the best. I'm scared... lol

February 29th, 2012, 03:40 PM

stroyal

Your awesome.

I wonder if it has ti reboot before it see the update.

February 28th, 2012, 09:25 PM

Eli

Progress! I think.

Okay, I've done a LOT of research and I've had some luck. So far I've used ISOBuster to open the original image for the x58 BIOS and stripped out the necessary .img file that contains the rom and Dr. Dos. I then loaded that file onto UltraISO, removed the x58 rom, the flash tool, and the autoexec.bat file that kicked me in the nuts in the first place. They were then replaced with the tool, the rom, and the batch file from Acer's web site for that tower. Save and exit.

I again loaded UltraISO (given the curcumstances, a fresh start is a good idea), went file, new, bootable CD/DVD image, and chose the .img file I just modified. That was burned to a fresh CD-RW as I don't want to risk the original one that started the mess yet. I stuck it in the drive of the ailing system and low and behold, now I can access the new rom!

So I ran the batch file and hit a snag. Error: File ROM ID incorrect. No kidding, it has an x58 bios right now. So I went back to that nasty autoexec.bat file and edited it (for the love of god don't run it), finding the exact arguments that overwrote my BIOS with a smirk. I punched in the same command using the new flash tool and rom and off she goes, 100% done across the board. It *should* now have the right BIOS!

One problem. Just to confirm that it worked before taking the rebooting leap-of-faith, I ran the batch file from Acer again. It STILL says that the ROM ID is incorrect. Well. Isn't that nice. Could Acer have oh so nicely have the wrong BIOS up for this machine?

So I'm thinking that I should repeat the process with an older BIOS from Acer's site just to see if the error vanishes before I push the tower out of the nest, as it were. But hey, at least as of tonight, it *might* still be alive!

February 28th, 2012, 05:49 PM

Eli

I'm pretty sure that the files I see are still on the CD, it's just the floppy emulation that's causing me issues. The system expects to see a disk emulating a large floppy disk (2.88MB) under DR. Dos 7.03. If I can just create another disk just like it with the proper bios on it, I should be able to recover.

I've done some research and have been experimenting with UltraISO to modify a bootable image (adding the bios files) and CDBurnerXP to make a bootable CD emulating the necessary size floppy disk. So far nothing has worked on the ailing system, I'm guessing because I don't have a proper image file of Dr. Dos to work with. Am I on the right track, or totally out in left field? lol

February 28th, 2012, 01:35 PM

stroyal

It has been slow here lately, and even slower this weekend, so maybe bump it a few times, before you give up on us.

My screw up was only 1 revision different, so that didn't surprise me that it installed.

I'm still thinking that image/RAM drive, is on 1 of your drives, as you said, the RAID, can't be running, if Dr DOS did the booting.

February 28th, 2012, 01:07 PM

Eli

Thanks for the help, I'm pulling my hair out so far. lol

The only drive letter active is a:\. Nothing else works. It makes sense as I use a RAID0 array, it's not likely to be accessible under any form of DOS. The only files I can see when I run 'dir' is the files of the 2.88MB boot image. The x58 rom, the flash tool, command.com, etc...

There was no verification or confirmation of any kind. The CD booted, I saw "Dr. Dos" loading and though that was weird, gparted should be a version of Linux... Two seconds later came the bios update status, already nearly complete the erasing current bios stage. AAAHHH! NO! I very nearly shut it off at that point in my panic, then it would have certainly been bricked. Right now it's only *mostly* dead. No choice but to let it continue with 100% - OK appearing at every stage. No prompt for a backup, no "are you sure" message, no "hey stupid, this is an AMD board, not an x58" slap. Really, how could this even happen? They're both AMI bios' but other than that, not a thing in common. AM2 (I think) vs LGA1366, Intel vs AMD, etc. It didn't complain at all!

For all I know it's prefectly fine and the bios was untouched. Some sort of error would've had to have popped up though.

The machine is still running back at home right now, I dare not shut it off until I figure something out. *sigh* I've already started looking for a new board...

February 28th, 2012, 11:30 AM

stroyal

That is strange, usually you need to at least double verify.

Another thing is, it should have asked if you want to save the old BIOS.

Trying to think of a way to see if it is really running.
Do you dare to type C:
or DIR
I would think DIR would get "file not found" if it is really running.

I barley remember how to make a boot disk for DOS, let alone Dr DOS.

The floppy image must be on the RAM drive on C:.
When you can see it, what did you type?
Can you still pull it up?

Just throwing out Ideas, but if it did flash, maybe it saved the old BIOS, automatically, as it didn't give you a choice.

If it is still running, maybe you can start the flash again, and choose the old BIOS. (if it saved it)

If it is not running, well, I'm sure you know.

You are very patient, I would have bricked it by now, if the flash took place.

February 28th, 2012, 06:57 AM

Eli

Nope, no floppy. The boot cd uses Dr. Dos 7.03 for a 2.8MB floppy image where it has the x58 bios and flashing tool. It has no direct access to the CD as it sits either, just the portion of the disk that makes up the floppy image. I'm *hoping* that I can make a new image based off of Dr. Dos 7.03 with the proper bios and installer for the motherboard and reflash it before rebooting, but so far I haven't had anything read properly. Any ideas on how I can modifiy the files on the original boot CD?

I'm pretty sure that the bios chip is soldered onto the Acer's motherboard too. Somehow I doubt my soldering skills are up to that task.

I left it sitting there at the a:\ prompt all night, hoping for a miracle. lol I'm surprised that something as recent as an x58 bios would automatically flash onto a system without some sort of verification, or at least an "are you sure" confirmation message. *sigh*

February 27th, 2012, 09:41 PM

stroyal

I suppose you don't have a floppy drive.

If you have a floppy, maybe a DOS flash.
Or just see if it will read a floppy.
If it won't read a floppy, while you are already at the A: prompt, I think you are out of luck.

There is nothing you can do but, try to reboot.

When that happened to me, by downloading the wrong BIOS, I ordered a new chip from Abit.
I was back up in 2 days.

If your chip plugs in, manufacturer, or after market BIOS companies, on line.

I have a feeling, you know the part about replacing the chip.

February 27th, 2012, 07:54 PM

Eli

Accidental bios flash from wrong board, haven't reboot yet!

Holy smokes I haven't been here in a while...

Long story short: I thought I was putting in my gparted disk into my baby-quad-core, an Acer AM5200 (Phenom x4). What I actually stuck in was a CD with the most recent bios update for my xfx x58i! Wouldn't you know it, the stupid thing seems to have run through the flashing process without complaints, sitting at an a:\ prompt waiting for a reboot. I didn't notice it was the wrong disk until it had begun erasing the prom. Dammit!

So, I haven't rebooted yet, and I've been trying to make a CD on my i7 with the proper updated bios and flash utility (bootable, emulated as a floppy disk, etc...) and convincing the PC to run the proper flash. So far I haven't been able to get any other CD to properly show it's files. ObviouslyI don't want to reboot since it likely won't come back up. Any suggestions? For all I know the flash didn't work and the original bios is fine but it sure looked like it burned sucessfully.